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Sep 2013

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615

Originally Posted by Mr.wizard

That's just not true, most of sports is muscle memory and working on turning your hands a certain way on certain trajectories is very easy to do with repetition. Hand placement is improved the same way route running is improved, through repetition. At 21 sure he is as physically talented as he is going to get but that doesn't mean he cant improve his techniques.

What you are saying is that diligent practice and hard work helps. It undoubtedly does - I'm sure there are less drops in the NFL at the end of the year than in the beginning. The quote from that article was not talking about practice. It was "easily corrected" drops via being taught "hand placement." Someone should have mentioned that little tidbit to the one of the dozens of coaches in Clemson's multi-million dollar football program, where Bryant was muffing passes left and right. Hand placement, for chrissakes.

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May 2014

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1,848

Originally Posted by Moonie

What you are saying is that diligent practice and hard work helps. It undoubtedly does - I'm sure there are less drops in the NFL at the end of the year than in the beginning. The quote from that article was not talking about practice. It was an "easily corrected" drops via being taught "hand placement." Someone should have mentioned that little tidbit to the one of the dozens of coaches in Clemson's multi-million dollar football program, where Bryant was muffing passes left and right. Hand placement, for chrissakes.

Same argument could be made for all the receivers coming out of college, they all have things listed they need to get better at. Route running usually on everyones list is it because the coaches don't practice it? No its because practice time is limited in college not to mention the talented players usually enter the draft after only 2 years. Also college football is not a developmental league its about winning, coaches only have a short window with players so in a lot of cases they may choose not to take the time to fine tune a player.

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Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant pulls in a pass in rookie mini-camp on the South Side Friday morning.

A tall wide receiver who finally showed up wearing a Steelers uniform carrying a reputable resume was not nearly tall enough in his first practice with them.

There isn't a receiver in the NFL who could have come down with some of those passes Friday which tryout quarterbacks were throwing 5 feet over the heads of their targets. Maybe it was just jitters of being in their first pro camp and still unsigned.

None of it seemed to make rookie wide receiver Martavis Bryant nervous or even disappointed.

"It's a new start for me and I want to make a great impression," Bryant said.

A few people already made one on Bryant. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who will be more accurate with his throws than those uncorking passes Friday, called Bryant 10 minutes after the Steelers drafted him a week ago in the fourth round.

"He just said he's happy for me to be here," Bryant said.

Roethlisberger at least is happy with someone he can virtually see eye-to-eye. The two hooked up with some routes Tuesday when Roethlisberger and other veterans worked out with the rookies at the team's training facility.

Roethlisberger long has asked for a tall receiver but he's not had one that broke into the top four at the position since Plaxico Burress left after the 2005 season. While his Indianapolis combine height of 6 feet 3½ puts Bryant 1½ inches shorter than Clemson advertised in 2013, he's plenty tall enough and fast enough at 4.41 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) to get the job done.

The rest is up to him, which will include work on catching the ball away from his chest, a habit noted in predraft analyses.

"I can catch, I'm not worried about what people say," said Bryant, who caught 42 for an average of 19.7 yards for Clemson in 2013 as a junior. "I'm working on catching it outside but as long as you catch it and don't drop it, people can't really talk about it."

Coach Mike Tomlin got on him in his first practice, not for dropping any footballs but for being winded.

"He's messing with me a lot ... how I've been getting tired and stuff like that."

Bryant said he liked how Tomlin kidded around with him. He soon will learn that also can be Tomlin's way of sending a message.

There is a job open for someone to start catching footballs in real games for the Steelers since they lost three of their top four wide receivers over the past 14 months, two since March. Antonio Brown is the only fixture of a group that also includes Markus Wheaton, who had six receptions as a rookie, and newcomer Lance Moore, who caught a bunch in New Orleans the past eight seasons. Moore will play in the slot, so it figures that either Wheaton or Bryant will become the split end, where Mike Wallace and then Emmanuel Sanders played.

"I'm just going to come in and work hard and whatever happens, happens," Bryant said. "I can't control that, it's in the coaches hands."

His position coach sounds as if he already has been won over.

"We had him here for a visit and we bonded then," said Richard Mann, an Aliquippa native who has seen his share of NFL receivers. "We didn't know we were going to get him. We didn't think we were going to get him, but we got him and I'm delighted."

The Steelers won their two most recent Super Bowls with no contributing wide receivers taller than 6 feet, but Mann, like Roethlisberger, thought they needed to get taller.

"We needed a guy different from what we have," Mann said.

"I have been kind of campaigning for a big receiver this whole process. We lost Jerricho Cotchery. Jerricho did the dirty work, as I call it, on the strong side, which is where most of the running game is done. We just don't have a guy with the stature and the makeup to be that guy.

"Hopefully what we expect is that this guy can pick up some of that slack and we will go to work and teach him what he needs to learn.

The Steelers thought Bryant was a second-round talent but with the draft so deep in receivers, he fell to them in the fourth. Bryant might have benefited from playing one more season at Clemson because he really played only one after backing up 2013 first-round pick DeAndre Hopkins.

But Bryant has two young daughters and a mother who he said took care of him his entire life.

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Dec 2013

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2,144

Originally Posted by Shawn

It's because he was light years away in college. Why be surprised?

Why does anyone think he is going to show up for his pro practices and all of a sudden not have all the faults he has had during his college career? He is a project, and projects usually don't pan out. It's doubtful you will see him on the field when it counts this year.

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Mar 2008

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12,202

Originally Posted by sick beats

Why does anyone think he is going to show up for his pro practices and all of a sudden not have all the faults he has had during his college career? He is a project, and projects usually don't pan out. It's doubtful you will see him on the field when it counts this year.

Agreed. His game was suspect in college...suspect hands, production, route running, and work ethic. Just because someone looks good on paper doesn't mean they will all of a sudden bloom into Megatron. He is a 3 year project at minimum...and with that I would give him a 60%+ bust rate. At this stage in the game I would take Moye 10 games out of 10 to start. To be honest he is a poor man's Sweed.